Booksmart (Olivia Wilde, 2019)
Added 2019-05-28 03:13:06 +0000 UTC
On twitter earlier today, my homie Willow (like a number of folks) was taking stock of the relative commercial failure of Booksmart, which had a disappointing Memorial Day weekend. In addition to noting, correctly, that right now only franchises (superhero / comic book / monster /horror) seem to succeed at the box office, Willow made another observation. Booksmart doesn't really depict contemporary high school realistically, and so it may have left its target audiences cold, or even confused.
That's a good point. But I think this is precisely what is going to insure Booksmart's longevity as a cult classic. (High school doesn't look much like Superbad either. Or Donnie Darko.) Sure, Booksmart is funny, has two winning leads, and lets them be smart, funny, and randy. But more importantly, the film has charm. Olivia Wilde and company did not go the Eighth Grade route, creating a film whose verisimilitude is its only virtue, its only real creative property. They made a forward-looking film, inventing a high school experience that reflects the way they want high school to be for girls.
They don't do this in a schoolmarmy, listen-to-the-wise-mama-feminist way (Mean Girls). They simply use art to envision a better world, where Amy (Kaitlyn Dever) is nerdy, but an out gay girl and no one really cares. Where Molly (Beanie Feldstein) is a "butter-personality" because she's uptight, but no one thinks she's too zaftig to be desirable. And where a lot of the rich snobs and burnouts actually turn out to be kind of nice.
It's a fantasy. But why not create an image of the world you'd rather live in, instead of the umpteenth solidification of the shitty one we're stuck in? In dreams begin responsibilities, remember?
